Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (2 Timothy 4:2-5 KJV)

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Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
(Mark 1:16-18 ESV)

How often God chooses the most improbable people to move forward his purposes. A cowardly Jonah fled from God’s commission to preach to the Ninevites (Jonah 1:1-3). Israel’s great King David committed adultery and eventually murdered the husband of the woman he committed adultery with (2 Samuel 11:2-5). God does not call theose who are worthy (I myself am that example personified), He chooses those that He calls to serve Him.

Yeshua called His disciples to be “fishers of men” (Mark 1:16-18). Where does this metaphor come from? Again, we must look to the Tanakh, as the Tanakh and and Brit Chadashah almost always have shadows of each other to proclaim that which has been or that which will be.

The Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “”Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations” ( Jeremiah ESV).

Therefore, it is through the apostles that Yeshua the Messiah, the seed of David and the only begotten Son of God, will restore Israel. They are the “fishers” spoken of by Jeremiah. However, the disciples primary purpose is not to lead people back to the land, butleading people to Messiah. In Him, God’s promises of restoration will be fulfilled.